A blog dedicated to being an episode guide of sorts to Doctor Who, the best science fiction show in the history of television. This blog will feature episode commentary on both new and classic series episodes. If an entry deals with an episode you haven't seen yet, rest assured, it WILL contain spoilers, mostly because I am too lazy to try to keep from putting them in or warning you about them.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

"The God Complex"

I am still a little behind. I am finally watching last week's episode, "The God Complex." The opening promises that this will be an amazing episode, scary and creepy. After all, who hasn't had nightmares about a haunted hotel? Each room has something someone fears, and everyone goes form room to room until they find their worst fears. All of the pictures feature people and what their worst fear was. The Sontaran's greatest fear was defeat, and the young lady cop was that horrible gorilla from the pre-credits sequence.

Apparently , the blogger's greatest fear is a room full of attractive females. Heck, that is my wildest dream! I loved his theory about the CIA and underground cities in Norway. Rory get's a great line here, saying that he came up with an explanation more bizarre than what was actually happening. Of course, Joe gets taken, and all of the repetitions of "praise him" are slightly disconcerting.

Personally, I think that Rita would make a great companion. She has a confidence that would make the Doctor's travels slightly more interesting. The Doctor works out that the hotel is the hunting grounds of an alien monster that feeds on fear. Of course thinking of a basket of kittens banishes all of my fears too!

The Doctor faces the monster and tries to reason with it, but the geeky blogger (I'm terrible with names) gets in the way and the creature is on the rampage again. I like that Rita isn't automatically impressed by the Doctor and it will be sad if she buys it! The Doctor found his room, and while we don't see his greatest fear, we hear the TARDIS cloister bell ringing. The Doctor finally works it out, that it isn't fear that the monster feeds not on fear, but on faith, and in order to save Amy, he has to break her faith in him. While it works and the monster backs off and eventually dies, we get our first possible glimpse of Amy and Rory leaving the Doctor.

The monster turns out to be another look back at the old series as the Doctor tells us that the creature was related to Nimon from the Fourth Doctor Story "The Horns of Nimon." I think one of the great things that Moffat has done is he has incorporated references to the old series several times now. It really makes old-school fans like myself feel like we are appreciated for sticking with it. I haven't seen "The Horns of Nimon" in several years, so maybe I will have to watch it. I wonder if it is on my DVD library?

The episode ends with the Doctor dropping Amy and Rory back off at their house and heading out on his own. At least Rory gets a car out of the deal. It is kind of a sad ending with the Doctor alone in the TARDIS.